Jah

Lets try to keep this thread with real bets then.. no need to mix fake money with real money. In regards to real money: Fight Pick | Risk | To Win | Odds | Fight Date | Date Placed Mauricio Rua over Chuck Liddell | $100.00 | $165.00 | +165 | 2009.04.18 | 2009.04.05 Brian Stann over Kryzstof Soszynski | $50.00 | $65.00 | +130 | 2009.04.18 | 2009.04.05 Xavier Foupa-Pokam over Denis Kang | $50.00 | $150.00 | +300 | 2009.04.18 | 2009.04.05 Jason Macdonald over Nate Quarry | $120.00 | $100.00 | -120 | 2009.04.18 | 2009.04.05 David Loiseau over Ed Herman | $120.00 | $100.00 | -120 | 2009.04.18 | 2009.04.05 Jason Miller over Kala Kolohe Hose | $415.00 | $100.00 | -415 | 2009.04.18 | 2009.03.20 As Long as Macdonald, Loiseau, and Mayhem handle business like they should, everything should be butter, and any of the aforementioned before have a decent or better chance at taking the W. So should be a solid weekend.

First of all, looks like negotiations with Norifumi Yamamoto was a bust. So much for Dana and the WEC coming to terms with KID, I was looking forward to finally seeing him state-side where the bulk of the top fighters in his division rest their heads. There are still some fights for him in Japan, and with his long lay off, this may just be what he needs. Especially before jumping into the fire that is the WEC in a completely different time zone. Andre Galvao x John Alessio Galvao did an excellent job against Alessio. He fought his fight by keeping his distance, picked his punches, and closed the distance when necessary to bring the fight down. He did a beautiful job of landing knees to the hamstrings of Alessio to make it easier to bring the fight down and was very patient in working for the submission. The rules of Dream continue to favor submission grapplers with the 10 minute first round and the non allowance of elbow strikes to the head. Alessio was able to work within the rules and utilize some knees to the head whenever he had the opportunity which may have bought him some time. Unfortunately, he had nothing for the Brazillian on the ground. He seemed frustrated at his performance after the tap from an elegantly executed armbar from Galvao. Marius Zaromskis x Seichi Ikemoto Greasing looks like it is still a problem in Japan, doesn't even look like they check the fighters' bodies. Ishi's back looked rather shiny after he disrobed, not saying he greased, but he certainly could have and nothing would have been done about it. The fight ended up being one of the best of the night, some great back and forth action and both were willing to stand and trade from ranged fighting to inside the clinch. Zaromskis came closer to landing a backflip in a fight than GSP has post fight. Both fighters were extremely creative even though it got sloppy at times in part to adrenaline, bad technique, or fatigue. I still thoroughly enjoyed the whole fight and would love to see more of the same in MMA consistently. I'll actually go to go as far as saying that Marius Zeromskis decision victory over Seichi Ikemoto is fight of the year thus far. Jason High x Yuya Shirai High straight mollywhopped his opponent to the ground, forced him on his back and finished him with a crushing RNC that put Shirai to sleep with the quickness. I'm sure McKee couldn't be more proud, he was grinning from ear to ear the whole time and may have been more happy than High. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai x Shinya Aoki Aoki countered Sakurai looked hungry for the win, and looked much bigger and obviously was stronger than Aoki as he swept and crushed him with knees. It was my own undoing when I felt that Aoki could sub just about anyone who went to the ground with him, he should follow Penn and stay in his own weight class. I'm simply happy he didn't bawl like he did after the Hansen thrashing. I'm happy Sakurai had a quality opponent to make a resurgence in his career. FUCK, I miss PRIDE and the kind of fights they put on... but this was a great substitute and I was happy to get to watch it live. PS. They need to get rid of those flawed gloves, I don't think I've seen an event where at least one person didn't have problems with them.

Fag Gate aside (it gets funnier if you say it out loud). I never really valued Loretta Hunt’s opinion too much on MMA. Only time I ever read her articles is when it involves any quotes from fighters themselves, in a sense, when she does the footwork to get some fresh MMA news or information. Other than that, I don’t really care for her work. Dana is right, the same goes for most journalists, they misconstrue the truth in an effort to create a juicy story. Lastly, the man can say whatever he wants, and he does so on a daily basis, this should be no different. It just happened to make the edit and put on youtube for the world to see. He also made an excellent point about managers and their role, they really don’t serve a purpose backstage when a fighter is prepping to go out. A bitch is a bitch.. and if it happens to be a woman, then so be it. I say good shit Dana. Too bad we will be without video blogs, press conferences (I'm guessing we'll only have post fight pressers from now on), and more. Such is life.

I'm from Jamaica, born and raised. Its a country where homos are looked down upon heavily and they are regularly persecuted for basically being gay in public. The ones who make it to jail before they get damn near killed are the lucky ones. I can go on and on about how they are treated, but you can do your own research and find pictures and videos yourself if your that interested. It was weird adjusting to America at first with how open the fruits are. For the past few years I've gotten used to gays and lesbians being everywhere and this countries acceptance of it, but as an avid MMA fan, the end result of this has rekindled and reminded me of my roots and that I just really... whats a nicer way of putting it... I just don't really care for gays. I still feel Dana did nothing wrong, the man spoke his mind. The general public needs to get over it. I wasn't aware gay people take offense to the word faggot when its not being directed towards them, the word has several uses, do gay people consider themselves fags? If not, stop being offended, shit. Less media coverage now, no more backstage scenes and inside looks at whats going on leading up to an event. A friend of mine's brother is gay, when I happen to be at his house I may accidentally slip out the word "fag" every now and then and he doesn't even flinch as I speak. I'm not calling him a fag, and it wasn't directed towards gay people. Just calling my homeboy a fag because he may have beaten me in Tekken or something, meant in the context of bitch, fucker, asshole, etc. I understand its not professional, but shit... freedom of speech, especially since its nothing new coming from Dana. He calls stuff gay all the time, and as soon as he calls an anonymous person a faggot and a woman a bitch, everyone wants to jump all over him.

He's fought in the states 3 times I believe, and passed his drug test each time. If he is on it, he's cycling well. I for one believe innocent until proven guilty, some people just have great genetics... who are we to criticize.

YES SIR! I've been waiting on Feijao to get matched up with a top opponent, and for Babalu to face a tough striker who is competent on the ground and won't roll over for him. I'm definitely looking forward to this one. I've been highly impressed by Feijao Calvancante's fights I've seen thus far. Can't even express how excited I am for this on in words. Strikeforce is looking to put together some high quality shows, and they are off to a great start I would say. Extremely close fight to call and an interesting mesh of styles. Babalu has some great wrestling skills, if he learns to keep his hands up and slip punches he might be able to hang out on the feet long enough to get this down to the mat. I'll have to go watch some footage on both fighters tomorrow to see how this might go. This is an excellent match up in that both fighters still will have a bright future regardless of who wins or loses. If Sobral walks away with the win, then it will show his progression in his overall development as a fighter to be able to deal with elite strikers in the division. If Calvancante takes this one, then it shows he can deal with the pressure of fighting someone who is arguably in the top 10, and also being able to handle someone who has strengths where his weaknesses lie. An all around great fight, I can't wait. To pick a winner cold turkey, I'm going to say Rafael Calvancante via TKO (Round 2)

Get the PS3, I'll be buying one next week. Plus I need some competition, all the hardcore gamers are getting it on 360, but I'm not a gamer, I just happen to love MMA and fighting games in general. I also hear we can replace the hard drive with no problem so long as we haven't turned it on yet, so I'll be buying the cheapest one and installing a 1TB hard drive to it since they go pretty cheap now. UFC 2009, multimedia device, blu-ray, and superior controller. Can't beat that with a stick. PS. No hard feelings, but just letting you know that your fighter Mij Neztil is fighting my Dad, so just letting you know Mr. Neztil is gonna get smashed.

You can't make a claim like that without even listing your username or a link to your profile on there. Lets see some stats.

I had the hard choice of putting money on either Anderson or Mayhem, as both are as close to guaranteed wins as you can get. I believe Mayhem has a better chance than Anderson, and at the more attractive line (not that either lines are that great). Miller has taken several beatings throughout his career and has managed to still put up a fight. If GSP can't finish "Mayhem", then I'm not sure who can. Frank Trigg had to basically soccer kick the shit out of his head to get the stoppage. Miller's BJJ is lightyears ahead of Kolohe's, and that is a fight that will to go to the ground at some point whether its Miller or Hose that forces the takedown. My only concern is Jason's conditioning as of late. Kala does a lot of running and cardio related workouts, he may not be a technically sound striker, but he carries a good amount of power in his strikes. The only way I see him losing is due to a Flash KO, couple that with how lenient refs tend to be in Hawaii, I still expect "Mayhem" to be able to recover and go on to win the bout as he is a very smart fighter. With that said, I decided to go ahead and put a full unit on Miller at -415, hopefully things go as planned. Jason Miller over Kala Kolohe Hose via Submission (Round 2)

I wouldn't say he looked slow on the feet, just not as hyperactive as Condit. The fight was about as close as I thought it would be, and went down the way it should have as I alluded to. An excellent fight with great back and forth action, it was a pleasure to watch both these guys go at it. http://drop.io/hf3wxem/asset/untitled-png Junie was the only one to lose me money, as expected. Just happened to think Xtreme Couture would have gotten him prepared enough to be able to walk away with the win, but I wasn't in the least shocked when he got dominated start to finish.

May I ask why you are putting $147 on Bader? The odds are horrible at cash value, I understand that he is supposed to mollywhop Marrero, but your money could be placed elsewhere with roughly the same risk, but bigger payout. Its too late now, but I guess it can't hurt to go with someone who is as close to a guarantee as you can get in MMA. I still find its a bit of a waste though as it could have been allocated for a better return on someone with just as good of chances of winning.

You may have partially misunderstood me, I didn't say he has a better grappling game, I just feel he is more diverse. I believe Condit has better set ups overall, and thats important as you have to get position before you can lock anything up. I just feel Kampmann has more tools on the mat to get the job done and may have a better chance of catching him off guard by using strikes to open him up, rather than Condit's more traditional style. As you said, we will have to see, should be one of the best fights of the year so far. Regardless of who wins, I'm pretty sure I'm not getting my hopes up as far as the excitement factor goes.

I wish I could do parlays, I would have made so much more money than I'm currently making, I'm currently with Bookmaker. Long story short, they lied to me about where they stand on parlays, apparently they only do them for "regular sports". Guess I'll elaborate a bit; prior to making my deposit I called to get their policies, deposit bonuses, rollovers, parlays, etc. They told me they do parlays on MMA, and that my deposit bonus was applicable towards MMA. Both of which were lies. Right now, my money is trapped there due to rollovers from the deposit bonus I signed up for, which explains my large bets (should see some of my others, all logical and I'm lucky the fights went as planned so far). The fight is basically a coin toss, but I feel Kampmann has better trainers, training partners, and wrestling to Condit's poor takedown defense. He needs to stay on the outside and pick him apart and counter when necessary. Close the distance if he gets in danger, rather than try to cover up like he did against Marquardt. On that note, Carlos doesn't carry anywhere near the kind of power Marquardt does in his strikes and he would have to break his will and wear him down, which I just don't see happening. Kampmann's grappling game is more diverse as far as his range of submission applications and sweeps. Where as Condit has his bread and butter moves that he can hit almost at will, but is screwed once he exhausts his limited options. I figure if he can avoid Condit's lanky legs trying to catch a triangle, he should be able to walk away with at a decision victory at the very least. Back to the gambling side of things, which is exactly what we're doing since this is MMA, and anything can happen. I'm still way ahead of what I put in, it just sucks I have to bet a little more over a $1000 to be able to withdraw my money. I need Mayhem to pull through for me too over Kala Hose. I don't see Kolohe KOing him as he's one of the most durable fighters out there, and he should easily be able to outgrapple him. As long as he avoids soccer kicks to the head (which I'm not even sure will be legal for this event), he should be able to walk away with the W.

I'll just copy and paste from the spreadsheet I keep for my betting records. Fight Pick | Odds | Risk To Win | Ticket # | Date Jorge Rivera over Nissen Osterneck -135 $20.80 $15.41 55257482 2009.04.01 Gleison Tibau over Jeremy Stephens -170 $20.00 $11.76 55257481 2009.04.01 Martin Kampmann over Carlos Condit -130 $130.00 $100.00 54994662 2009.04.01

I was gonna get to Lebanner being robbed as well. If they scored the final round 10-9, I would be able to understand the first round being a draw. But Bonjasky won 30 seconds of the final round and was getting whacked around the other 2:30, with the knockdown being the key to him winning the bout. If there is such a discrepancy in the scoring, then the first round should have been awarded to Overeem 10-9. I guess its safe to say Overeem got lucky to face an injured Remy who looked lackluster and plodded along through most of the match. Whatever happened, happened, and I'm over it now. Judging in all sports has always been whack, and its the fighters job to make sure it doesn't go to the scorecards to avoid things like this happening.